The present embodiments relate to medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging. In particular, values for acquisition parameters are established for imaging a patient using ultrasound.
Ultrasound imaging requires the adjustment of multiple acquisition parameters, such as the depth, focus, transmit frequency, and receive frequency (e.g., fundamental or harmonic imaging). The correct choice of values for the parameters impacts the quality of the output image. In practice, the default parameters recommended by the manufacturer may not always produce an image as good as could be produced. Due to differences in patients or other situational differences, the defaults may not be optimum.
The acquisition of a good quality image is a challenging task even for an experienced sonographer. Given the number of possible acquisition parameters that may be altered, determining the combination for imaging a patient is time consuming. Patients with large body habitus or large amounts of bowel gas may be particularly difficult to image. The abdominal scan time varies from 20-45 minutes. Moreover, the exam may become uncomfortable for the patient if the sonographer cannot set the acquisition parameters properly since sonographers tend to compensate by pressing against the patient's abdomen in an effort to obtain a better image.